How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress
You’re probably familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is certainly true when you are presenting or explaining complex information.
Using graphs and charts is useful for breaking up content that has lots of text, and making statistical data more easily digestible.
You can use tables to present information, but if you want people to try and make sense of complex information with figures, percentages and relationships easily, then charts and graphs allow you to present the data in a meaningful and intelligent manner that can be quickly and easily understood.
Graphs and charts help explain complex data so people can more easily understand it!
Need to add charts or graphs to your WordPress pages? This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to use WordPress Visualizer – an easy-to-use and powerful plugin for WordPress that allows you to create, manage and insert appealing and mobile-responsive charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few simple steps that:
- Your web visitors can engage with
- Allows you to add data from your computer or an online data source
- Is responsive for mobile screens
If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison data or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), a simple method you can use is to create your charts or graphs using an image editing application, convert these into jpg or png images and then simply insert your files and an image into your posts.
Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins
If you want to easily insert dynamic bar charts and pie graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.
Fortunately, there is a great plugin for WordPress users that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create colorful and dynamic graphs and charts, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with updateable information.
Visualizer – WP Plugin
Visualizer URL
You can install the plugin in your WP dashboard (explained a little further below), or download WP Visualizer the WordPress free plugin directory using the link below:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer
Plugin Description
Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and insert beautiful charts and graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with just a few mouse clicks.
Visualizer uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no additional addons are needed.
WordPress Visualizer also provides a variety of built-in that are optimized to address all your data visualization needs, including:
- Line chart
- Area chart
- Bar chart
- Column chart
- Pie chart
- Geo chart
- Gauge chart
- Candlestick chart
- Scatter chart
Visualizer is also flexible and customizable, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your web design. Several options are available for each chart that allow you to fully customize their look.
Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your site visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile devices without having to install any extra software.
Plugin Installation
From your WordPress dashboard, select Plugins > Add New from the main admin menu …
In the Add Plugins page type “visualizer” into the search field and hit enter …
Locate the item in the search results area and click Install Now …
Click OK to proceed …
Activate the plugin …
You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins page …
After your plugin has been activated, click on Library …
You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by choosing Media > Visualizer Library from your dashboard menu …
This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library options …
When you first install the plugin, the library contains no charts.
The next step is to add add charts and graphs to the library.
Visualizer Configuration
To add a graph or chart to the plugin’s library, click on Add New …
A visual gallery displaying all the types of graphs and charts available will load on your screen.
Select the graph or chart type you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …
Your selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.
The next step is to upload a CSV file that contains your data …
When creating your CSV data file, ensure that:
- Your first row includes the column headings.
- The second row includes the series type (e.g. string, date, etc.)
The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …
If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply study the sample provided with the plugin.
Next, select your data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.
Upload CSV File From Computer
To upload the CSV file and data from your hard drive select ‘From Computer‘ …
Locate and select your data file and then click on ‘Open‘ …
The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type selected …
Upload CSV File From The Web
For a tutorial that explains how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:
After importing the data, check that all of the information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a data file with the correct data), and then click ‘Next‘ …
Depending on the chart or graph type you have selected, the plugin will display a number of customization settings …
Visualizer gives you full control over your information, and updates your display in real time …
For example, the pie chart offers many configurable options, including:
- General Settings – Configure chart title settings, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
- Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
- Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
- Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate a slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
- Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).
Once you’re happy with the way your chart or graph looks, click Create Chart …
Your graph or chart will now be added to your Visualizer ‘Library’ …
Note that every new element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to add charts and graphs to your pages easily …
Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by type …
After a chart or graph has been added to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit its details, duplicate it, or trash it …
Visualizer Usage
Once you’ve created a new element and added it to Visualizer, it’s simple to add it to pages and posts.
First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …
Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into your content and click on Add Media …
Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …
Find the chart or graph to be inserted into your content and click on the “insert” icon …
This will add a shortcode into your content …
Once you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …
After publishing your post, click ‘View post’ to see the result …
Your post or page should display your graph in the location you specified …
As mentioned previously, the plugin also displays responsive charts for mobile browsers …
As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can change your data and your changes will automatically be reflected wherever you have inserted your charts, graphs, comparison bars , etc. in your website. This makes working with interactive chart information in WordPress really efficient.
The plugin developers have created a number of tutorials you can refer to to learn how to edit, customize and use the Visualizer plugin for WordPress.
For additional tutorials on editing, cloning, deleting and adding data to your charts, visit the site below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to add great-looking and dynamic charts and graphs to your WordPress pages and posts.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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